Greetings Cowboy99,
Kudos to you for asking the right questions, and for asking them before you start your tank!
There is an excellent series of articles by Eric Borneman in Reefkeeping Magazine called
Mything the Point. Part 3 of this series has a section called
Concepts about Nitrification, Stocking Orders, and the New Tank. It is highly informative and should address many of your questions. You can find Part 3 of this series
here.
In this article, Eric proposes the following procedure for setting up a new tank:
1. Live rock- wait three months- let algae bloom and take up waste, helping the "cycle".
2. Add variety of herbivores- let them feast on the algae in the really clean water.
3. Wait a few more months:
- algae will get eaten, corallines will grow
- spend the time planning the inhabitants, reading
- monitor, familiarize, and dial in water quality
- watch "pods" and worms grow and reproduce- make it a "feast" in the reef with no predation
4. Add stony corals and pioneer species- the water is perfect for them now.
5. Wait a few more months- grow a reef!
6. Add some carnivorous reef fish- they now have a high water quality, structurally complex, natural healthy reef... they'll thrive...no ick!!
Plus, this well established reef can now handle the food inputs they will require.
PATIENCE IS THE #1 TOP TIP BY A PANEL OF EXPERTS....SERIOUSLY!!
Another way of looking at it is "Enjoy the journey!". Too many people are in a hurry to get to the final destination: a beautiful reef tank packed with corals and reef fish.
In addition to Eric's excellent recommendations, I would like to offer a few (not so excellent) of my own:
1. Start your daily photoperiod and add daily additions of live phytoplankton to your tank from Day 1. (I highly recommend DT's). Live phytoplankton will do two things for you. First, it will feed off of ammonia thus helping to reduce the levels of this poison in the tank and minimize die off. Second, it will feed your filter feeders that come in on the live rock, thus helping to keep a high level of biodiversity in your tank. I would recommend one dose just before lights on and one dose after lights out.
2. Remember that you want to get through the nitrogen cycle with a minimum of die off. This means that you want to keep your ammonia levels as low as possible, preferably ZERO. With a small 10 gallon tank, I would recommend large, daily water changes with new, clean salt water with matching temperature and pH.
3. Hold off on the hermits, at least initially. They are opportunistic predators that can put a big dent in your biodiversity, especially in a small, unestablished tank like yours.
4. When it is time to add snails, add only one. Wait a few weeks and add a second one if you think the tank can handle it. I recommend smaller snails such as trochus and astrea over the larger turbos, especially in a 10 gallon.
5. You have a small tank, so do your best to minimize predation. Cleaner shrimps can be effective predators of sand bed and live rock fauna. Don't add one until your tank is very well established.
Here's a brief description of my tank for comparison: My system is a 25 gallon reef that I setup 3 years ago. I have one ocellaris clown and one lawnmower blenny. My "macro" cleanup crew consists of 1 emerald crab and 1 trochus snail. My "micro" cleanup crew consists of hundreds (thousands?) of worms, pods and various other itty, bitty creatures. I may add one additional snail (probably an astrea) in the near future. Aside from a dusting of phytoplankton on the glass that I clean weekly, there is not much microalgae growth. In fact, I have to supply weekly feedings of algae strips for my blenny to keep him fat and happy.
I hope all this helps. Whatever you decide to do, document the process with lots of pictures. It will be instructive to you and will help you when you setup your next, larger tank.
Best,
Q
